Railroad tie and rail clamp



G. W. POPLE.

RAILROAD TIE AND RAH. CLAMP.

APPLICATION mu) APR.22. 192.

1,410,078, Patented Mar. 21, 1922.

gwmmto c gor ye 26 UNITED STATES GEORGE W. POPLE, 0F TRINIDAD, COLORADO.

RAILROAD 'rrn AND nArL CLAMP.

Specification of Iietters latent. Patented Mar, 21, 1922 Application filed April 22, 1921. Serial'No; 463,447.

To all whom it'ma concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE W. Form, a citizen of the United States, residing at Trinidad, in the county of Las Animas and State of Colorado, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Railroad Ties and Rail Clamps, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to railway ties and attachments for maintaining the rails in position on the tie.

The primary object of the invention is to provide an improved steel tie for use on railways of wide and narrow gage such as employed for railway rolling stock, coke ovens, tramways and in any other capacity where rails are employed over which large or small cars travel.

Another object of the invention is to provide a tie and a clamp to hold the rail in position so that it will be held against accidental or casual displacement.

Other objects of the invention will appear upon consideration of the following detail description and accompanying drawings, wherein F ivure 1 is a longitudinal section through the tie showing the rail in cross section and illustrating the manner of attaching the clamp to the rail and tie,

Figure 2 is a transverse section through the rail tie showing the manner of maintaining the clamp in proper position,

Figure 3 is a horizontal section through the wedge members, and

Figure 4 is a detail perspective view of one of the clamping members.

Referring to the drawing by numerals, the tie 1 consists of a length of suitable metallic material shaped to form a channel like body 2 having side walls 3 and 4 and a bottom wall 5. The tie is open at its top throughout its entire length and theinner.

surfaces of the side walls 3 and 4 are inclined as indicated at 6 so that the bottom of the channel is narrower than the open top as shown to advantagein Fig. 2.

The rail 7 of the usual type, has its base flange resting upon the upper edges of the side walls 3 and 4 and these side walls therefore act as supports for the rails.

A pair of clamp members are employed to secure the rail to the tie and one of these is shown to advantage in Fig. 4 of the draw? ber consists of a wedgeshaped body portion 8 the sides 9 of which are tapered to fit within the interior ofthe channel in the tie. These tapered walls engage the inclined inner walls of the sides 3 and 4 and when the clamp member is pressed down into the channel it will be firmly held against movement. The lower end of the wedge portion 8 is provided with a narrow flange 10 which is adapted to engage the similar flange on the co-operating wedge member so that an open space 11 is permitted to remain between the two wedge members which engage the rail. Each wedge member is disposed so that its flat top portion 12 is flush with the upper edges of the railway tie and in this manner the base flange of the rail 7 also rests on the top of the clamp member as shown in Fig. 1. Gripping flanges 13 are formed on the wedge members and extend around the marginal edges of the base flange of the rail and across a portion of the top thereof so that the base flange of the rail is firmly held when the two clamp members are in operative position.

Grooves 14 are formed in the clamp members extending crosswise thereof and it will be noted that these grooves are square in cross section so as to receive wedge shaped fastening pins or cleats 15 which are passed through suitable openings 16 and 17 in the side walls 3 and 4 of the railway tie. The cleats 15 are tapered so that when they are thrust through the openings 17 and through the grooves 14 their angular faces will engage the marginal edges of the openings 16 and 17 and thereby force the two clamp members toward each other so that the gripping flanges 13 will snugly and tightly engage the base flange of'the rail; Removable locking pins 18 are passed transversely through convenient slots in the cleat me1nbers 15 so as to prevent displacement of the cleats when they are in applied position.

It will be noted from the above construction that the wedges 15 act to thrust the clamp members toward each other so that gripping flanges 13 will.- snugly and firmly engage the opposite edges of the base flange of the rail. In this manner the rail is held against any accidental displacement and can be quickly and easily removed for the purposes of repairing or substituting of a new rail when desired.

Minor changes may be made in the details of construction without departing from the spirit of the invention or the scope of th claim hereunto appended.

What is claimed is i In combination with a railway rail, of a tie of channellike formation having side Walls with their inner surfaces inclined, the

base flange of the rail resting upon the top' edges of the said side Walls, clam members disposed within the channel of t e tie and having gripping flanges engaging the oppothe said fastening members.

In testimony whereor- I afiix my signature. 20

GEORGE W. POPLE. 

